1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to distributed computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for re-establishing communication between a client and a server after an unexpected termination of communication between the client and the server.
2. Related Art
Because of security concerns, organizations often encrypt their data and require authentication of clients before the clients can communicate with a server, a network, or a database.
During normal system operation, there is always a chance that a computer system will crash or abruptly lose communication with a server or a database. This can occur for any number of reasons, including denial-of-service attacks, hardware failures, application errors, and power outages. Usually, after an unexpected loss of communication, an administrator attempts to restore all computer systems to normal operation. Typically, this involves re-authenticating the systems that have lost communication to the server, network, or database.
Unfortunately, users cannot control when a system will crash or lose communication with a server. Furthermore, because of security concerns, the ability to restore a system to normal operation is typically limited to a select few individuals. Consequently, if a crash or loss of communication occurs during the night, when the administrator is on vacation, or when the administrator is in an important meeting, it may not be possible to restore a system to normal operation in a timely manner. This downtime can be extremely costly to an organization that relies on availability of its computer systems.
Hence, what is needed is a method for providing both system security and system availability.